I just can't help but feel it's the shift towards a much deeper (scuse the pun) and long-overdue way of looking at environments in games. These kind of environments are exactly what multi-core processors should be doing with their time - fuck trying to eke every last explosive particle from the graphics processor - spend time instead calculating what knock-on effects happen between different 'pixel' type encounters.

"Make the world itself engaging, not the veneer cladding it."Exactly, see also Dwarf Fortress which although much weaker graphically it also randomly generates a world. Although the Dwarf Fortress world is an entire planet with erosion/rivers/glaciers/mountain... towers/huge caves/lava seas then it plays out a few thousand years of war and history before you even start playing.

Ridiculously in depth game, it models an entire world and the 4 seasons (lakes freeze over if the region is cold enough) but then even goes as deep to model how many teeth your dwarf has, what their left sock is made out of and how they feel about their pet cat drowning in the well.

So i'm at the point where i've mined a bit of everything. I find some diamond, turn it into a pick axe and use up the whole axe, digging to find more diamond! Starting to design my house... Is there anything more in the game to do?